Baltimore City Power Rankings: BPD, Eric Costello, Under Armour, more

Alex Fine

Alex Fine

↑ No ICE In Baltimore Rally

After stories of ICE arrests in Highlandtown spread, Baltimore's activists, including Maria Gabriela Aldana Enriquez, the education director for Creative Alliance, organized a short notice "No ICE in Baltimore Rally" on Sunday. About 400 people showed up and marched from the Highlandtown Library around Patterson Park and back again declaring Baltimore's streets "sanctuary," demanding Commissioner Davis keep his promise that this city will be a sanctuary city, and chanting ICE-specific riffs on stalwart protest chants like, "Back up, back up we want freedom, freedom/ All these racist ICE cops, we don't need them, need them."

A recent profile of Boss Hög in Washingtonian magazine ended with a scene showing that Annapolis Democrats were flummoxed over how to combat the state's immensely popular Republican governor. Things have changed since. State Senate Democrats pushed through a joint resolution—meaning it's veto-proof—that allows Attorney General Brian Frosh to sue the Trump administration. Prior to its passing, Frosh could only have acted with permission from Hogan, who to this point has tried to side-step anything and everything related to Trump. Frosh had asked to sue the White House in response to the travel ban and received no response; now he doesn't need one. In a more direct, though entirely symbolic attack on Hög, members of the House of Delegates introduced a bill to handle road kill—a farcical tweak of Hög's nickname for a law that requires the governor to assign a score to transportation projects up for funding. Hög's popularity doesn't show any signs of wavering, but Democrats have more than a fighting chance if they keep pushing the Gov and linking him to the disaster in the Oval Office.

←→ BPD

Det. David Kincaid shot and killed 18-year-old Curtis Deal, who pointed a gun at him last week. Few are challenging the shooting, but the police went out of their way to characterize Deal as "a bad guy." Police Commissioner Kevin Davis called him just that at a press conference held two days after the shooting where body camera footage was presented and police spokesman T.J. Smith went over Deal's lengthy record (and they added that he may have been linked to a 2016 murder). Davis' prompt release of the footage shows he's committed to transparency but going out of their way to vilify Deal was unnecessary.

↓ City Councilman Eric Costello

Caves Valley Partners, the sole bidder on a city contract to revitalize and manage Federal Hill's Cross Street Market, abruptly canceled the renovation plan. Some residents and vendors were thrilled, as the Caves Valley plan promised to close the market for eight to 10 months and then raise the rents. Some had protested the company's application for a liquor license and its effort to evict long-time vendor Nick's Inner Harbor Seafood last month. Nick's, whose liquor license Caves Valley reportedly wanted to buy, won a stay in court. Caves Valley threw in the towel two weeks later. Councilman Eric Costello, who had strongly backed the Cross Street renovation, said he was "very disappointed."

The hits keep coming for Kevin Plank and co. After their stock tanked and a local city councilman's criticism of Plank's work with Donald Trump evolved into another round of criticism for UA's Port Covington project, Plank went ahead and praised the Cheeto-in-chief on CNBC. Many people on social media were having none of that, vowing to boycott. The apparel company released a very corporate-speak statement about how it engages in "in policy, not politics," but that was soon overshadowed by prominent UA spokespeople Stephen Curry, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, and Misty Copeland disavowing Trump and Plank's view that our current fascist leader is an "asset" (they're all sticking with Under Armour for now). On Friday, the company released another, stronger statement that said UA is against the travel ban. Plank and UA will likely have to do a lot more to win people over, especially those here in Baltimore.